Diamondprox: I would like to be surrounded with talented people who are eager to improve

October 20, 2016 at 15:40

In an exclusive interview by a premier Russian sports coverage web site, Danil "Diamondprox" Reshetnikov talks about his time in NA LCS, returning to Gambit, CIS scene and it's odds at Worlds 2017. Interview was conducted in Russian and we would like to offer you a translation.

Why did you chose to play in NA last split? What do you make of time spent in Apex?I had a lot of reasons. Most of all because I liked the main roster of the team, and also it was an opportunity to compete for a chance to participate at Worlds without any risks of not getting a visa. As for the time spent there, it was definitely not spent in vain, such experience always teaches you something, and I learned a lot from this trip. Although it was difficult to put up with not being able to compete for a spot at Worlds. However, when looking back, I realize that with the structure the team had it would have been difficult to achieve great results, and that I got the most important thing anyway, which is knowledge.

What made you go back to CIS region and join Gambit again?Generally, it’s deeper knowledge of how the Western League of Legends pro scene works. The fact that they don’t have a magical elixir that makes players perform better. Everyone has their own pros and cons, and I wouldn’t say they are far ahead from what you can create in CIS if you have talented people. So why not try with my native organization, which shares my views on how a team should be built.

Lately Riot Games have been talking about how the game would change and how the financial conditions would improve. What, in your opinion, League of Legends has been lacking all these years?I can talk about the cons of League of Legends for hours, but let’s leave it for another time. But the con that has concerned me most of all lately and which is related to LoL Esports - it’s that for a lot of organizations the only way not to lose money on maintaining a pro team was to sell LCS spots. It restrained the infrastructure development in EU/NA (for NA it has gotten better though because a lot of new huge investors came to the scene). I hope that Riot in future will pay more attention to this problem and will be fair in their willingness to help not only the top teams, but also mid and bottom-tier teams, so that our scene could grow even quicker.

The new team will be built around you. Have you already decided who you want to play with? Maybe someone from the previous rosters of M5/Gambit?I would like to be surrounded with talented people who are eager to improve, who are not restrained by a lot of real-life problems. No doubt that M5 players from 2012 would fit these requirements perfectly, but all of us change as the time goes by. On the other hand, we’ll see, anything can happen.

How do you think our region will improve in terms of skill after such a great performance from Albus Nox at Worlds? Should we expect LCL to become more popular?The popularity growth depends more on fans and their wishes. I hope that every Russian viewer will invite a couple of friends, otherwise English broadcast of LCL (which, in my opinion, is necessary for the development of the region) will be more popular than Russian. As for skill development - wait for a team from CIS to advance to semis in 2017.

What is your prediction for the Worlds finals? Who is going to win and why?Friendship will prevail! Korean friendship.